Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro May Ditch Physical Volume and Mute Buttons

We won’t know anything for sure about the iPhone 15 until it’s launched later this year, but we’re expecting big changes. We’ve already mentioned it in our iPhone 15 rumor roundup, but this year’s Pro models may ditch physical buttons for touch-based buttons that will introduce a kind of “taptic” feedback. Now, a new render is backing up that claim, but at least it’s assuring us that we’ll still have dedicated mute controls.

A video making the rounds on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, is getting some air time on ShrimpApplePro’s Twitter feed. The latter is a noted leaker among the Apple blogs. The video shows a CAD design rendering of what we’ve already been hearing about the iPhone 15 Pro/Pro Max: that it will have solid-state buttons on the side rather than physical ones. They’ve been referred to as “taptic,” as they’ll offer some haptic feedback when the finger hits the area.

The renderings show a touch-friendly bar where the volume rocker usually sits on the left side of the iPhone. The mute button is also expected to go touch-only, although we’re not 100% sure based on the renderings, with the ability to tap and press to turn the ringer on or off. The jury is out on whether that would be as satisfying as the physical flick of a switch or would feel more like the touch bar that’s on some older MacBooks—I suppose we’ll only know if any of this comes true.

The iPhone 15 rumors up until now have pointed to four different iPhone 15 models, with two denoted as the Pro and Pro Max and two referred to as the regular iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Max. Those latter models will likely not have the taptic buttons, as we cans see in yet more renderings, and will instead employ a traditional tactile volume rocker, power button, and mute button.

If it does turn out to be the case that the Pro variants use the new taptic buttons, Apple’s “Pro” smartphone lineup will continue to offer early adopters the bragging rights of shouting “first!” over a new batch of features. It may also help Apple position the device as more durable than its predecessors—something the company has already done with the Apple Watch Ultra.

We won’t know anything for certain about the new Apple iPhone 15 until it comes straight out of Cupertino. But the rumor mill so far points to USB-C, a Dynamic Island on the regular iPhone 15 models, and more memory pulsing on the inside.